Commercial Drivers and DUI

If you are a commercial driver, driving a bus or a truck, your commercial driver license (CDL) is an essential part of your job, Without it, you will not be allowed to drive a commercial vehicle and therefore you are likely to lose your job. If you are charged with DUI, it is likely that it will have a huge effect on your life. It is essential that you use an experienced Tampa DUI lawyer to help you fight the charge. A good DUI lawyer knows how to challenge the way you were arrested or tested for alcohol.

Commercial drivers must have a higher standard when driving than non commercial drivers. This is because they are either responsible for the safety of passengers who are in the vehicle they are driving or they drive a large and potentially dangerous vehicle. Truck accidents are responsible for some of the worst fatalities in the United States. Drivers with a CDL cannot drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of more than 0.04% – half the level of an ordinary driver. In fact, police officers can still charge a commercial driver with a blood alcohol level les than 0.04%, if they have reason to believe that their behavior has been impaired either by alcohol or drugs.

A DUI charge can have serious consequences for any driver and they are even more serious for commercial drivers. The penalties for a convicted DUI driver include fines, imprisonment, license suspension, a requirement to complete community service, attend driver safety courses and / or use alcohol monitoring devices like an ignition interlock device.

Penalties for Commercial Drivers

The penalties for commercial drivers depend on how much alcohol you had in your blood when tested and whether it was a first offense. However, the most serious penalties are the fact that your license is likely to be suspended for up to 1 year from the time you are convicted as well as the fact that a DUI conviction will remain on your record for life.

Any commercial driver knows only too well that losing their license will affect their job immediately. It’s not as if you can get public transport or a taxi to work and then start your daily job. Driving is your job. If you have no license, you have no job. Even if you get your license back after it is reinstated, you have to convince your former employer that you are capable of doing the job again or you may have to apply for another job with a DUI conviction on your record. Neither of these two options will be easy and may be difficult considering the employment situation in the country at the moment.

Hiring a Tampa DUI Lawyer is the Best Option

Considering the seriousness of your charge, the only sensible option is to do what you can to fight your DUI charge. When you hire a Tampa DUI lawyer they will investigate your arrest very thoroughly. There are many ways in which a DUI arrest and alcohol test is not followed through correctly. Blood alcohol tests are unreliable for a number of reasons and the testament of a police officer using field sobriety tests can be very subjective and subject to criticism. There are many ways in which your DUI charge can be challenged successfully. It is possible that your charge can be dismissed altogether or through a plea bargain it might be reduced to a charge of reckless driving.